Today we're taking a look at the Elektra Verve.
This awesome timber and stainless steel machine, dual boiler.
Is it the next machine for you?
Well, I'll tell you all you need to know.
In the marketplace a lot of people start to think,
do they want single boiler, HX, dual boiler
and price really starts to jump into it very quickly.
When you make the decision to go from a single boiler to a double boiler.
There's a price jump
from nearly three, three and a half grand up to the $7,000 mark.
Now, there are a couple of awesome machines like this
Verve that sit around the $6,000 mark that gives you a ton of value.
So the biggest outstanding
part of The Verve is a five litre water tank.
Now, that is the biggest you're going to get in any home machine.
It also comes with a rotary pump, which means you can plumb
that into your mains water and never run out.
You've got a drain so that you can have your drip tray go down into your sink.
There's a fully integrated app allowing you to change
the time the machine turns on and off your pre
infusion times and a few other cool features as well.
You've got the dual boilers,
the rear boiler for your hot water and your steam is 1.6 liters.
And in the front, you've got a fully saturated boiler
and grouped together of 150 mill, which is PID controllable.
So you can increase or decrease that temperature
for that specific roast profile that you have.
Now a lot of people think that
with double boilers, your power is going to be crazy.
But The Verve comes in at 1600 watts for that whole pack, which is so low.
That is about the same power usage as some of the
HX machines for around the three, three and a half grand mark.
So with those specs alone, the Verve is sitting at the top of the list.
It's a real standout, but there is this customization which is just next level.
You've got this multicolored timber wrap that goes on the sides of the machines.
You've got all the highlighted steam knobs, the brew levers,
and these really beautifully
turned, different shaped group handles.
They're just an absolute joy to hang onto.
In the drip tray you've got this little cup riser
and you have so much room under here to do your really big mugs
or your sixteen ounce coffees,
if that's your kind of thing that you want to make at home.
A lot of the machines out there don't have that much space.
If you're going to do an espresso pop in your little tray
and that's going to raise the cup right up.
So your espresso is not falling a long distance into the cup.
You've got your normal lever system here for your hot water
tap and your steam as well.
It's not a cool touch wand, but you do have the rubber on there
to keep it nice and safe.
And then you've got your brew lever,
which has a pre infusion you change by the app.
This one's at 3 seconds
so there's your water hose to plumb
from mains and your drain if you want to run that down into your sink.
You get a standard 18 gram basket,
seven or nine gram and your backwash as well as part of the kit.
And you get a heap of paperwork,
to tell you how to use the app and use the machine as well.
The manual for this is also in the app if you need it and to finish it off,
you get a sexy matching timber tamper from Electra.
That is a really nicely finished tamper.
Now to access the app, it is free Wi-Fi and you get a set of keys, you pop it in
and turn it, grab your smartphone,
open up your Wi-Fi,
pick the Electra
and because the app is actually in built and running
through the Wi-Fi of the machine, you don't have to download an app
so anyone's got easy access to your machine if they're going to use it
and just walk through from the left.
The first thing you can do is change your your pre infusion.
Ours is sitting at 3 seconds.
Then you've got your rear boiler, which you can increase or decrease.
Currently we're sitting at 90 degrees for the front brew boiler.
Swipe again and you've got a timer for when you can have this as night time mode.
So when it's going to turn off at night
and when it's going to turn back on in the morning.
The next swipe is whether you're going to choose to run
from the five litre tank or from your mains water.
Remember if you're going to get a mains water
plumbed machine, there's a few things you have to think about, like filtration,
a pressure limiting valve and making sure that that filter suits your local water.
So do a nice test to make sure you're going to cover that beautiful
water quality to make this machine give you a great espresso.
And on the last page, you've got a reminder about your water softener.
Now, not a big issue here in Australia,
but overseas that's something you need to think about.
Then you got a little reminder there of how often you need to clean your machine.
Then you've got how many shots the actual machine has actually made.
And at 2000, I'm pretty sure that's a number
when it's going to tell you to change your water softener.
Then it's called the manual.
So if you lose all that paperwork it's all here on the app.
Easy to access.
Now when you've got it in sleep mode, just a little tip, the light will stay on
because it has to have power
to keep the brain going to know when to turn the elements back on.
So don't be fooled by that one.
So to access the water tank, you do have to remove your cups
and then you've got these two grills and you can't lift them
straight out because they do catch on these side rails.
So you've just got to sort of
maneuver them up a little bit sideways and bring them out.
Now, you'll note that this does have a water cover,
but in most other countries, I believe this is not sold with this option.
But in Australia, the supplier is giving them with them.
So that's a fantastic feature.
You can pull your tank out, fill it up if you need to
and pop it all back in.
Once you get the knack of it,
it's pretty easy
And then with the drip tray, there's a little trick to it.
Take off your cup, espresso riser.
Now this is your little dial that you have to turn, which automatically flicks back
and that allows you to remove your drip tray.
And you can see under here that little latch that does flick back.
So if you don't hold it it will actually lock the tray in
and you won't get it out.
The one thing I noticed about the Elektra Verve
is that they are so precise in all of their tooling
and how they make this handle, the groove, the fit,
how it fits into the actual brew head as well.
It is very precise.
It's not forgiving, but once you get used to it, it's really good.
A lot of people have the E61. It's a little bit wobbly.
These are beautiful and precise.
So when I'm talking about
precise is you've got your marker on here which holds your spring
and identifies the point where you can only maximum fill with grind.
You can't over pack your basket because you will not get this handle
inside this head.
So you definitely want to be weighing out the amount of grind that you're
putting in your handles for the Verve.
And you've got your dual gauge on the front there showing the steam
pressure at 1.2 bar and your pump pressure as well.
You can actually vary the pump pressure.
You've got access on the left hand side with a screwdriver.
It's currently set for nine bar, but you can reduce that right down and
have it set at three or six or whatever you choose to brew your coffee with.
So let's make a coffee.
Nice, warm, clean handle before you start.
I'm going to tare that off on our scale.
Brilliant.
Now we've got this grinder set
for 16 seconds,
and it can be pretty close to the 18 grams that we're looking for.
But the grinding out, going out about half of your basket
give it a bit of a tap and collapse
and grind out the balance.
Let's just check the weight on that
19.6.
So we're a little bit over.
So I just want to bring that back down to 18 grams.
Otherwise it's not going to fit inside this basket.
I'm going to use a spoon and a dosing pot just to take out
that extra gram weight.
There you go 18.1.
That's pretty close.
So we need to now get that back nice and level before we use our distributing
tool.
We've got the nucleus tool here today, so pop that in.
Give it a good spin
I'm going
to use the tamper that came with the Elektra machine here.
Nice and firm.
Give it a bit of a turn.
So no re tapping, just polishing it
like that is awesome.
Lock the handle in.
Now we've got 3 seconds of pre infusion, which is what I call line
linebar pressure.
The pump hasn't been activated.
Then you can hear the pump kick in and we get that awesome espresso
coming out nice and rich, chocolaty and dark.
This is a small cup. 220 mill, I think.
So I don't want to go too crazy.
We're looking for a one to one ratio there,
which is about 20 seconds extraction.
We're going to froth now these um.
These levers here, they're nice, beautiful and timber.
I found them a little bit slippery myself,
but give it a good squirt to get that water out.
It is a quite a dry steam on this machine.
There is a little bit of a water build up there,
so make sure you do give it a good purge.
Get it spinning nicely with no hiss.
Introduce that hiss.
Once you got enough foam
and not before 40 degrees, just keep that spinning
to the temp that you're after.
Make sure you give it a nice clean up.
Right now before I pour one thing I do want to point out,
this lever is beautiful.
It is so smooth, it just glides.
That's amazing engineering on this model.
Alright tap swirl our milk and swirl our espresso.
Here comes the pour.
There you go,
beautiful little rosetta.
That was a really nice experience.
And that's something you got to think that when you look at different machines,
they spend so much time here changing the look
the feel and the user experience that I've just had making this coffee
that makes it stand out above all the other E61 style machines
that just have the big lever that's exposed on the front.
So if you're looking for something that, you know, you get up in the morning
and you want to really enjoy making coffee,
you want something that looks beautiful on your bench,
try and think outside the box.
This machine could be the right one for you.
It's definitely a great experience.
It makes a beautiful coffee and you've got all that flexibility
there to change your brew recipe, with your pre infusions.
Manually you can change that pump pressure.
It's just ticking so many boxes out there
at that great value of around six grand.
So if you're looking for that machine a little bit different,
I put your eye out and have a look at Electra Verve.
Thanks, guys.
I hope this is giving you
an idea about this machine and how good I believe that they are.
And is it your next machine?
Well, if we can help you, make sure you reach out.
If your not in Australia, sorry can't help you, but track one down.
I'm sure you're going to love the experience.
Cheers, guys. Catch you next time.